Reflecting Back

My favorite activity that we did in English this year was acting the Hamlet scenes. It helped me understand the text better and helped me with my film essay as well because it allowed me to visualize the context and atmosphere that Shakespeare was trying to convey.

Performance choices

Even though I wasn't there for the performance, I planned to play the King in Act 1 Scene 2. My group and I were going to mimic Olivier's version, where Claudius makes no eye contact with Hamlet (or Gertrude) at all. In order to receive attention, I did not join Hamlet and Gertrude's conversation and was singled out of their 'connection.' I was planning on pacing the 'stage' while saying my lines to portray Claudius' loudness while announces his lines. 

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot uses imagery to express his depressing view on life. He uses 'big' imagery of simplistic ideas to make up his look on how life has, essentially, no purpose. Line 51, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" demonstrates how Eliot questions life and how little trivial things are the reason for his existence. By exemplifying coffee spoons to measure his life, suggests that his life amounts to nearly nothing.

5 phrases

1.      “To be, or not to be” In this soliloquy Hamlet is thinking about suicide or overcoming the death of his father. In this soliloquy there is a lot of repetition and pauses which express Hamlet’s slow thinking process and decision-making, he then starts to over-think about this circumstance later in the soliloquy
2.      “Graveyard” The graveyard provokes the gloomy setting because at this point in the play, a lot of characters are unexpectedly dying. At the graveyard, Hamlet speaks to the skull of Ophelia, which illuminates the death theme in the play as well.
3.      “Fishmonger” When Hamlet taunts Polonius; Hamlet belittles Polonius when he calls him a fishmonger; since a fishmonger is an underclassman or “procurer.”
4.      “Do it, England” This is when Claudius is alone on stage and he expressed his hatred for Hamlet. He states that Hamlet is like a disease to his well-being and that Hamlet must die in England. “England” is personified as the solution to Claudius’ revenge.
5.      “The play’s the thing” Hamlet cleverly establishes the play The Murder of Gonzago to ‘trap’ Claudius. The play ‘is the thing’ to reveal Claudius as the murder of Hamlet’s father and, when established, Hamlet can take then avenge his father.

Imagery and Figurative

Figurative language metaphorically connotes an idea or theme in both literature and poetry. The language illuminates a deeper meaning to the context of the literature and is often used as an exaggeration to create an image for the audience. Shakespeare utilizes figurative language to connote imagery to develop imagery for the audience while reading the play. When Hamlet picks up the Ophelia’s skull, not only does the imagery reflect how immediate death may be, but also reflects Hamlet’s mentality of death. This imagery adds to the theme of Hamlet’s realization of how unpredictable and troubling life is—how it could end so quickly. Shakespeare also uses hyperbole to demonstrate love. When Hamlet exaggerates how his love for Ophelia isn’t comparable to “forty thousand brothers” is hyperbolic and creates imagery to demonstrate his passion.

Manipulating Laertes

King Claudius manipulates Laertes to fulfill his desire to kill Hamlet by using rhetorical questions and clever language. Claudius instills questions in Laertes’ mind which provoke Laertes to prove his devotion to his father. Since father/son love is a common theme in the play, Claudius employs that Laertes must prove his love for his father by fulfilling the revengeful task of killing Hamlet. Claudius accuses: “Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of sorrow, a face without a heart.” Claudius infers that instead of Laertes grieving about the death of Polonius, the time should be spent for killing Hamlet to prove his love for his father. Claudius, thus, manipulates an innocent Laertes to fulfill his revengeful tactic to kill Hamlet

Hamlet belittles his mother

After Hamlet’s father’s death, Hamlet belittles his mother by aggressively and skillfully attacking his mother with clever word games. Hamlet manipulates his words to target his mother’s wrongness with being with Claudius. Moreover, Hamlet tortures his mother with his cleverness and resorts to the thought of killing Claudius even if Claudius and his mother are together in the same bed. Hamlet makes sly comments about their relationship, pointing out his issue with the situation: “your husband’s brother’s wife;” Signifying the wrongness in their relationship/situation. Also, Hamlet criticizes his mother’s age and judges his mother’s relationship based on this element: “You cannot call it love; for your age.” He says that his mother’s love shouldn’t be lust. Furthermore, the Queen then becomes apprehensive about Hamlet’s word games and resorts to the idea that he might hurt her rather than Claudius: “What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?”